Mark McNamara, a Hoboken resident and parent, was sworn in to fill Monica Stromwall’s empty seat on the Hoboken Board of Education on Sept. 13. McNamara was one of four possible replacements interviewed after Stromwall resigned last month, saying that her family was moving to Connecticut because it was too expensive to buy a house in Hoboken and her family needed more living space (see previous cover story at hudsonreporter.com).
The other candidates for the job were Patricia Waiters, Chetali Khanna, and Matt Peluso.
McNamara has two children, one of whom goes to Wallace Primary School and the other of whom attends a private school in Hoboken. McNamara has served as treasurer for the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) at the Brandt Primary School, where he “helped with fundraising and made operations more effective.”
Last year McNamara created an after-school computer coding club for the district’s children, the Hoboken Coding Club.
“That was for the district students and ran for 12 weeks at Wallace,” said McNamara. “We had 20 kids who came. It filled in some STEM gaps that Dr. [Christine] Johnson has been trying to address.” STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and McNamara said that integrating these fields into the curriculum is probably going to be his number one issue while on the board.
He said he finds STEM to be important because it will create the foundation that the district’s students need for going to college and obtaining jobs.
He said that he believes Johnson has done an amazing job in her first year with the district and that he looks forward to working with her in the future.
McNamara also volunteers at the local homeless shelter and at the YMCA from time to time.
Had ruled out running for a spot
McNamara said he had thought about running in the current school board election but that he had decided against it. When Stromwall vacated her seat last month, he said it felt like the right opportunity to join the board.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to be up for it or not, and I was debating, and I felt this was a good opportunity for me to learn more about the board,” said McNamara. “So I thought, why not give it a shot up there in that capacity? That was really the decision. It was a good opportunity that came along.”
When asked about board issues to address, he said, “I don’t know enough yet. I’m trying to dig into the details…and figure it out.”
He said he is a “private person” and wants to keep his private life as private as possible (perhaps a reason any person might be wary of Hoboken’s political landscape). “I’m generally a very private person and this is all new to me,” he said.
“I definitely think that there is always room for compromise.” – Mark McNamara
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But he thought it was worth getting involved. “I have some skills that I can offer the school, and I want to help them help the children and help the administration as well,” he said. “I’m really hoping to help the community and collaborate with the administration.”
McNamara said he believes compromise and incremental steps in board decisions are often the best.
“I definitely think that there is always room for compromise,” he said. “I think that there are a lot of good ideas from all around that should be taken into consideration and maybe incremental steps are a good first step as well.”
Board member Leon Gold motioned for a vote to appoint McNamara to the board. A majority vote approved him, with board members Peter Biancamano and John Madigan abstaining.
“I wish we had more time to review the applicant’s qualifications,” said Biancamano.
Biancamano had moved to push the decision to the October meeting in order to give the board members more time to review the four applicants. The majority chose not to do so.
Madigan agreed with Biancamano. He felt the board was rushing and that he would have liked the public to have time to look at the candidates.
Madigan said, “We got about 15 minutes with each candidate and only received information on the candidates yesterday.”
Biancamano said in an interview that he feels the public should know more about the people chosen to represent them on the board.
Board member Irene Sobolov, who is allied with a majority of board members, said she believes that all the candidates were “unique and passionate in different ways.”
Gold said he hoped that the other candidates run for future school board elections.
“I cannot stress enough the high quality and sincerity of all the applicants and my appreciation for the time they sent applying,” said Gold.
Board member Sharyn Angley said that she is excited to welcome McNamara.
“Mark is a long time resident who has been active with the Hoboken public schools and the Hoboken community,” said Angley.
Angley said that he not only served as treasurer for Brandt PTO and started the Hoboken Coding Club, but also was a “key contributor to the start up of the Hoboken Public Education Foundation.” According to the HPEF website, the organization raised “more than $90,000 in net proceeds in its first year.” This money funded several district initiatives including professional development for teachers and staff, the storm drain mural project with the Hoboken Green Team, the Brandt auditorium sound system, and more.
Angley added that McNamara has also coached recreation sports including soccer and basketball.
“It is clear that Mark’s desire to help the children of Hoboken is a priority in his life,” she said. “Mark regularly attends the Board of Education meetings and is in tune with district issues.”
Update on the election
Zachary Weiss, candidate for the Board of Education in the upcoming November election, emailed a statement to the Reporter stating he and Cory Johnson dropped out of the race.
“We decided to suspend our campaign because there were some personal complications in our respective lives that we felt were front and center in the near term,” wrote Weiss. “This does not preclude us from running again in the future if we decide. We would want to give 100% effort into the campaign in the future.”
He added, “We wish the best of luck to the candidates that are currently running for November’s election.”
Johnson was unavailable for comment before time of publication.
Marilyn Baer can be reached at marilynb@hudsonreporter.com